marith macha is: Let us all bless him together. I asked the angel and said, Sir, do all who
say Alleluia bless the Lord? And the angel answered and said to me: It is so, and again,
therefore, if any one sing Alleluia and those who are present do not sing at the same time, they
commit sin because they do not sing along with him, And I said: My lord, does he also sin if he
be hesitating or very old? The angel answered and said unto me: Not so, but he who is able and
does not join in the singing, know such as a despiser of the Word, and it would be proud and
unworthy that he should not bless the Lord God his maker.
31. Moreover when he had ceased speaking to me, he led me outside the city through the midst
of the trees and far from the places of the land of the good, and put me across the river of milk
and honey: and after that he led me over the ocean which supports the foundations of heaven.
The angel answered and said unto me: Dost thou understand why thou goest hence? And I said:
Yes, sir. And he said to me Come and follow me, and I will show thee the souls of the impious
and sinners, that thou mayest know what manner of place it is. And I proceeded with the angel
and he carried me by the setting of the sun, and I saw the beginning of heaven rounded on a great
river of water, and I asked: What is this river of water? And he said to me: This is Ocean which
surrounds all the Earth. And when I was at the outer limit of Ocean I looked, and there was no
light in that place, but darkness and sorrow and sadness: and I sighed.
And I saw there a fervent river of fire, and in it a multitude of men and women immersed. up to
the knees, and other men up to the navel, others even up to the lips, others moreover up to the
hair. And I asked the angel and said: Sir, who are those in the fiery river? And the angel
answered and said to me: They are neither hot nor cold, because they were found neither in the
number of the just nor in the number of the impious.^21 For those spent the time of their life on
earth passing some days in prayer, but others in sins and fornications, until their death. And I
asked him and said: Who are these, Sir, immersed up to their knees in fire? He answered and said
to me: These are they who when they have gone out of church throw themselves into strange
conversations to dispute. Those indeed who are immersed up to the navel are those who, when
they have taken the body and blood of Christ go and fornicate and did not cease from their sins
till they died. Those who are immersed up to the lips are the detractors of each other when they
assemble in the church of God: those up to the eyebrows are those who nod approval of
themselves and plot spite against their neighbour.^22
32. And I saw on the north a place of various and diverse punishments full of men and women,^23
and a river of fire ran down into it. Moreover I observed and I saw pits great in depth, and in
them several souls together, and the depth of that place was as it were three thousand cubits, and
I saw them groaning and weeping and saying: Have pity on us, O Lord! and none had pity on
them. And I asked the angel and said: Who are these, Sir? And the angel answered and said unto
me: These are they who did not hope in the Lord, that they would be able to have him as their
helper. And I asked and said: Sir, if these souls remain for thirty or forty generations thus one
upon another, if they were sent deeper, the pits I believe would not hold them. And he said to
me: The Abyss has no measure, for beyond^24 this it stretches down below him who is down in it:
and so it is, that if perchance anyone should take a stone and throw it into a very deep well and
after many hours it should reach the bottom, such is the abyss. For when the souls are thrown in
there, they hardly reach the bottom in fifty years.
33. I, indeed, when I heard this, wept and groaned over the human race. The angel answered and
said unto me: Why dost thou weep? Art thou more pitiful than God? For though God is good, He
ron
(Ron)
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